BKS Air Transport Ltd

BKS Air Transport Ltd JAMES BARNBY, THOMAS KEEGAN and CYRIL STEVENS

This purpose of this site is a tribute to one of the first Airlines that made package holidays available to the people of the Northeast of England.

Airline History	Detailed history of the Airline from 1952 to 1970
Fleet Histories	All the Aircraft owned by BKS and some photos *(Click on the underlined registrations)*
Staff Magazine	Copies of the staff magazine
Staff Photos	Photos of Staff sent in by readers - Do you have more to add?
In Flight Items	In Flight Magazine, Flight Report, and Load Sheet
Route Map	See a copy of the 1964 route Map
Airline Fares	Some of the fares charged in 1964
Airline Ticket	An 1965 ticket to Oporto for a Mr. Beaumont
Airline Brochure	Late 1950's Early 60's BKS Brochure about the Elizabethan
Pocket Timetable	Almost credit card size timetable before credit cards were heard of.
Memories	Interesting or amusing stories about the BKS airline
Memorablia	Items of advertising that provide an insite to those times
Modelling	BKS features in many Aircraft models but do you wish to create you own model?
BKS Football Club	The name BKS still lives on at Southend with the original Sports club going strong
Reunions	Details past and future reunions
Related Links	Links that take you to interesting sites, linked in some way to BKS
Search	Are you looking for something in particular? Use this search facility

The Staff Magazines links is now working and there is a great collection there. Well worth a visit. My thanks go out to Captain Ralph Brumwell for loaning his private collection of Staff Magazines and Newsletters for scanning and hence making available to all to enjoy.

(I am very interested in several issues of the BKS Newsletters, Originals, PDF files or photocopies will do. There is now a collection of all 10 BKS News and a large collection of BKS News Letters that have been sent in by several people)

May I recommend that you to visit my Guest book. There are many high quality entries that paint a picture of the airline from both Staff and Customers' views for which I would like to say thank you. The link is below.

I welcome all of your comments and suggestions about this site.

I received an email from Mark Brown:-
"Dear Biggles,
Found your site after re-reading Arthur Whitlock's "Behind the Cockpit Door" for the umpteenth time (my favourite aviation book by far). His book describes what it was like flying in a regional UK airline in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, and your site gives a lot of fascination information that adds colour and context to his descriptions.
I think Arthur Whitlock said that before 1970 he lost over 100 friends and colleagues to aviation accidents, and after 1970, none. The experiences and sacrifices made during those post-war years helped shape the industry to the safe mode of travel it is now, that we take for granted.
With warm regards,

Mark Brown"
Thanks Mark - I agree that it a fantastic read but unfortunately it is out of print at this moment.

And I have received this e-mail below from Ian Jeffery. Why not take a look at the Football Club history.

"Dear Sir,

I have this evening stumbled across your website. I was very excited when I first saw the link to the site, as I have been a member of BKS Sports F.C. since first joining them as a 19 year old player in 1983. The football club was formed by the workers of BKS Engineering who were based at Southend Airport in 1956.

I have now hung up my boots (only last year at the age of 42 after 23 seasons) and now hold the joint post of Club Secretary and Team Manager. Last year the football club celebrated it's 50th Anniversary. We held our Annual Presentation Evening at one of the flying clubs at the Airport and to commemorate the anniversary we invited many of the old players from years gone by. We have just finished the 2006-07 season and have enjoyed a successful year by finishing Runners Up in Division 2 of our league and earning promotion to Division 1.

I have attached a brief history of our Football Club which may be of interest to you.

Congratulations on a very interesting website."

And I have received another email asking for your HELP regrading NORTHEAST Tridents Click here to read

If any of you ex-BKS staff plan a reunion, I would only be too happy to make a page available on this site for you. There is one for Newcastle staff, and one for Leeds/Bradford but how about one for Heathrow, or Southend.

Click here to send me an E-Mail or if you would prefer to leave a message for the whole world to read - then I would love you to use my guest-book below.
Thanks Biggles.

Be notified of
page updates

Site Changes
Revision	Date	Page revised
Revision G	28th June 2009	Mark Brown's email added to this page
Revision H	20th July 2009	Film of Bristol Freighter added to History Page
Revision J	31st January 2010	Details of remarks in Fleet History updated
Revision I	3rd August 2011	Ron Rayner added to Staff Photos
Revision K	6th August 2011	Photo of G-AMAD in flight added
Revision L	8th October 2011	Cleaner named in Ron Rayner's photo
Revision M	11th October 2011	Jim Braithwaite gets in touch with Ron Rayner
Revision N	22nd October 2011	Help re Northeast Tridents required
Revision O	11th November 2011	"Apprentices" model added
Revision P	20th May 2012	Ash trays updated

Please sign our Guest book

BKS Guestbook

The Guest book is for ALL - not just BKS ex-employees